Flyers' Stolarz coming off a strong end to junior season

Find out more about who is expected to be in goal for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms

Saturday marks the first time Anthony Stolarz will compete as a professional at Flyers rookie camp at the Flyers SkateZone.

Stolarz, a 6-foot-6, 210-pound goalie from Edison, N.J., who catches with his left hand, is largely regarded as the man who will be between the pipes when the Lehigh Valley Phantoms open the AHL season Oct. 11 against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

Stolarz, a second-round draft pick in 2012, and the rest of the 27 rookies reported for testing Friday with no media availability, and will take part in camp which begins 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 13 through Monday, Sept. 15. There is a rookie game scheduled against the Washington Capitals at 3 p.m. Tuesday. All sessions, including the game, take place at the SkateZone and are open to the public and free.

Regular Flyers training camp begins Sept. 20 at the SkateZone.

Stolarz, 20, whose junior eligibility ended last season, skated and played freely during this week's open skates, and looked sufficiently recovered from minor hip surgery in June that kept him from participating in the team's rookie development camp.

He's also recovering from a skate laceration on his calf that occurred during an Ontario Hockey League game in January.

"It was a pretty freaky accident," Stolarz said during the earlier camp. "I didn't know what the damage was at first. The first thing you think about is your Achilles. That's where I thought, but I dodged a bullet. It was probably the best-case scenario that it was just muscle and I just needed 55 stitches. It was just hard going through rehab and watching my team play."

The goalie, whose sometimes fiery temper may remind people of Flyers general manager Ron Hextall in his playing days, is wearing Kevlar socks to prevent such a cut from happening again.

Stolarz received an eight-game suspension in March after delivering a one-handed slash to the back of Windsor Spitfires forward Josh Ho-Sang's helmet.

"That was lack of judgment on my part," Stolarz admitted. "I just let my emotions get the best of me. Looking back, it was the wrong decision and very immature and I ended up hurting our team toward the end of the playoffs."

"The only thing I tried to emulate from him is his puck-playing skills," Stolarz said. "Obviously as a goalie you want to go out there and help the defensemen and play the puck — that makes their job a lot easier — but looking at Brodeur's style as a stand-up hybrid goalie to my style as more of a butterfly, it's a little bit harder to go out and copy him."

Stolarz admitted he has his quirks like any goalie but is nothing like former Flyers goalie Ilyz Bryzgalov.

"I think for me I want to go out there and be a blue-collar goalie, a blue-collar player where I always work out," he said. "First guy on the ice, last guy off the ice. That's what I want to be remembered as. I try to stay as humble as possible.

"For me, it's just going out there and not letting the media and everything about me suffocate me. I just want to go out there and play and have fun. In the end, hopefully that will transition to winning games."

Hextall is eager to see the young guys compete. Since development camp in June, there have been unsupervised free skates in the SkateZone that culminated on Thursday. Now it's Hextall's turn to get a look at the organization's youngest players as a first-year GM.

"They are going to have to come in and beat somebody out," Hextall said, referring to defensemen Mark Alt, Shayne Gostisbehere, Robert Hagg and Samuel Morin. Morin, who will probably be returned to juniors (he's 19 and must be 20 to play in the AHL) and was a first-round pick in 2013. Alt was acquired in a trade with Carolina in 2013, Hagg was a second-rounder in 2013, and Gostisbehere was a third-rounder in 2012.

"It's no different than to put your kid in kindergarten or you don't," Hextall said of the young players. "It's a decision you make at the time based on results. You don't want to rush your kid and essentially let him blow up in kindergarten because he was not ready for that level of school.

"If you [rush] a kid at this level, you stunt his growth. Because he had a good couple days in training camp or whatever? There is nothing wrong with taking a kid and telling him, 'You've got to earn it.' Nothing is going to be handed to you."

Stolarz is excited about the young defenseman who will potentially be playing in front of him.

"The biggest thing is, we're going to be able to grow together," he said. "Hopefully, Shayne and Hagg are in Lehigh Valley [with me]. If we can grow as a team and learn to win together from the minors on up, that would only benefit us and benefit the team."